German foundation refuses to return Nefertiti bust

File photo of German Chancellor Angela Merkel looking at the statue of Queen Nefertiti (Nofretete) after a ceremony marking the opening of the Neues Museum (New Museum) in Berlin October 16, 2009.Credit: Reuters/Guido Bergmann/Bundesregierung/Files

A German foundation rejected Monday an Egyptian request to return the 3,400-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti, a sculpture which draws over one million viewers annually to a Berlin museum.

Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) sent the request to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which runs the Neues Museum in the German capital where the bust is kept.

"The foundation's position on the return of Nefertiti remains unchanged," foundation president Professor Hermann Parzinger said in a statement. "She is and remains the ambassador of Egypt in Berlin."